NEWCASTLE

NAME: Newcastle COUNTY: N/A ROADS: 4WD GRID: 2 CLIMATE: Mild summer,cold winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer

COMMENTS: East Central Alberta REMAINS: Many Mines.

Newcastle is now part of the city of Drumheller so it technically cannot be called a ghost town. But it has a lively and colorful history that deserves to be included in the stories of Drumheller Valley. “It was a pretty bad place,” one of the old timers recalled. It had some wild gambling places as well as lots of “sporting houses” where the painted ladies did a profitable business. But if Newcastle had its tough element, it also had plenty of decent, hard-working people who earned their living in the coal mines. Newcastle owes its origin to two men who formed the Newcastle Coal Company in 1911. That was the beginning of a coal mining industry that blossomed from a one mine, 59 man operation to an industry that opened some 134 mines in the valley and, at times, employed as many as 3,000 men. Even when the mines closed, many decided to stay. Over the years, they have survived not only mine closures but also floods and other calamities. What is there in Newcastle for the ghost towner? There is the Newcastle Mine Museum where there is displayed a fine collection of mining paraphernalia. Then there are the ruins of abandoned mines and old buildings that simply have to be examined and explored. H.B. Chenoweth

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